But since having episodes of acute gastritis, I learned that there’s nothing wrong with that. I found out that I am supposed to eat small portions of food every two to four of my waking hours, or else I’m putting my health in danger. So when someone says “Kakain mo lang ha!” to my declamation of hunger, I shove my diagnosis to their face and if I’m in the mood, preach about how this technological globalized world has normalized starvation in the timeline of our everyday lives because of work, work, work, work, work.

Still, there’s no escaping this technological globalized world, that aside from the knee-jerk reaction of referencing Rihanna even if I haven’t listened to her latest album–or actually, even just the whole song of what I referenced–we are forced to face a bombardment of food, stalls, and restaurants produced by such system. We have to weigh all of these vis-a-vis our travel expenses and our incapability to wake up early to plan and prepare our food. Or our lives in general.

Basically, I’m always hungry as a petite bourgeoisie in its most flipflopping meaning… poor but not poor but really poor!… but kinda picky… but laughably poor to be picky… but not poor enough to be unable to sabotage one’s own pockets leading to becoming poorer afterwards…

More basically, I’m really cheap but I still like to eat, preferably from an accessible place that doesn’t look like it will poison me. Bonus if it’s a place comfortable enough to chill.

This is my first batch of food review that I’ve been meaning to do since I had enough money to eat out. (So that was when? When I was 17?) I kept taking pictures of food because food is a wonderful thing, but I never got around to actually talking about it in writing. I’ve always thought that I don’t have a vast knowledge of food spots, and that’s still true.

But I do have a vast knowledge of eating after contemplating very hard and long about where I would burn money I don’t have. So here you go, people like me. 😀 😀 😀

1. Mang Inasal

I was there when Mang Inasal wasn’t under Jollibee’s claws (Paws? Tentacles? Uhh) and the servings were huuuuuuugggeeeee and plenty and the food was very tasty that I’m drooling right now remembering the ~good ol’ days~. I ate there almost every time I had to eat out because grilled chicken (though still oily) was what my tummy could take compared to the deep fried trans fat chicken of other fast food restaurants.

I stopped eating there somewhere along the way, because the food serving size and taste started declining after the acquisition. Not to mention the fact that they started wanting to beat Chowking off its Almost-All-Our-Branches-Are-Dirty-And-Mostly-Disgusting throne (the cleanest Chowking branch I’ve ever been to was in SM Marikina and that closed down, my best friend claiming it was because it violated the rules of physics for being a clean Chowking restaurant).

However, due to one night of intense indecision between my hungry boyfriend and the hungry me, we ended up eating at Mang Inasal. I was pleasantly surprised that the serving size is huge again and it didn’t taste so bland as I remembered. I also loved their halo-halo, which is a lot coming from me because I don’t like halo-halo. The only other halo-halo that I like is Razon’s.

After that, I started eating at Mang Inasal again.

Araneta-Center branch

So far, I think their Pork Barbeque meal is the most sulit. If I remember correctly, it’s around P75. Even just a piece of Pork Barbeque is enough to fill the stomach. Up in that picture, I also bought Lumpiang Toge… which is not as sulit. It’s too small for P20, since I’ve been munching down on huge Lumpiang Toge from UP at just P15 (I’ll have to take a picture of that in the future). But their accompanying customized(?) sauce is not disappointing enough.

What is disappointing, though, is their Pork Sisig. It’s more expensive than their cheaper products like the Pork Barbeque yet it… sucks. LOL.

The serving size of about P100 worth of pork sisig was so small; I wondered if the cheaper Sisig Hooray had began serving in teacups for Mang Inasal to have the audacity to charge high for such serving. But I guess it was okay since I couldn’t finish it either, being composed almost entirely of pure fat and skin and the taste and texture of rubber.

Manhattan branch. It looks a lot here, but it’s really not.

2. Salu-Salo

During my boyfriend’s birth month, I wanted us to eat in a place that’s different from where we usually hang. Also, preferably, somewhere along the way to school for my enrollment.

As we were just about to end up in Max’s, we passed by this Filipino restaurant with friendly servers and the price on their menus seemed… reasonable.

Also, I was attracted by their chandeliers. Heh. I was naive enough to think that my money would be going to their dishes, not their interior design.

We ordered this tiny plate of Hipon sa Aligue because, of course, in the picture it seemed ample enough for two. I was thinking, at least it might taste fancy, because, you know,chandeliers~.

So. It’s not. It’s so pedestrian, and that’s even probably an insult to pedestrians.

We paid P390 all in all along with the two cups of rice. There’s free appetizer though, but the most tasteless kamote chips I’ve ever tasted in my entire life.

Thought it was banana chips, at first.

3. EC Twin Lion or The Magical Snack Not Because It Tastes Magical But Because I Have No Idea Where The Hell It Came From

One day, I wanted to watch something while munching on something, and then I saw this in our living room.

“cheese bone curls”

Because twin lions and cheese are totally associated with each other. Not just one lion. Two lions… Is this a Chinese thing? ._. Just asking, being there’s some Chinese characters on this junk food…

I’m not sure if it’s out in stores yet or this is just some free taste thing that a house member acquired, but I looked for it in their website and Facebook page and saw nothing about twin lions. Is a sentence I never thought I’d say. I also wonder if research has been done on what aesthetics would appeal to their target market, or their marketing team just wanted to screw this company over. Or was high. Or unrecognized geniuses of our time.

Either way, it actually tastes nice. It wanted to be Cheetos which it kind of did without the being spicy. Which is good because I’m not really much into spicy. It’s a bit uh, hard? I’m not quite sure if that’s the proper term. It’s not like Cheese Curls soft, but it’s not that difficult to bite and munch though.

4. Leann’s Tea House

Except for Chinese food, East Asian food isn’t really my cup of tea. But it’s really nice to look at. Annndddd…. now and again, I crave for it. Sometimes, I get dragged by friends to go to places that happen to serve East Asian food too.

I mention my friends’ involvement because this is one of those eating out where the main goal is to bond with friends. Because I wouldn’t really go out of my way to go to eating spots. Though these places offer food that is more inexpensive, worth it, and delicious, I don’t have the time, energy, and travel money to embark on a journey towards these spots. So there should be a good reason to go such as friends. Or one of your friends having a car.

I am thankful to my friends, not just because of the car, but because they know good food. Even if East Asian food is not my thing and I wasn’t craving for Korean then, I enjoyed the dishes a lot.

So, I got Bibimbap. ^______^ It was nice with just the right healthy amount of oil for my taste. The spicy sauce is served separately, so I was able to mix it to my own liking. :3

My friend said it was good for one person, but I told her she lied because I couldn’t finish the entire bowl. Which was more than I could ask for P210. I initially thought I’d be wasting a couple of hundred bucks for a lousy single serving.

That lying friend and I shared Fried Mandu. WHICH WAS ❤ Well, I already love dumplings to begin with, but the mix of meat and vegetables in their Mandu was lovely and did not make me feel nauseous afterwards, as usually fried dumplings do for the gastritic pasaway me. It was soft and crunchy at the same time~.

It was priced at P140.

CHEESE MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER

Another heavenly dish was Kimchi Fries. Cheese-topped kimchi, bulgogi, and tiny pieces of random vegetables are apparently way better than Nachos~.

I don’t know how much it was since I wasn’t the one who paid for it. LOL. But, I do know that my couple friends bought a P400+ something worth of unlimited rice and pork belly, the one people have to grill themselves because people love to pay to cook their own dinner. 😛

I don’t know if there’s anything unusual about the taste of the meat, but my friends seemed satisfied. Like I was. They probably had me at, “Let us serve you with a plethora of tasty appetizers.” :]

I love how their chopsticks are not large toothpicks. But not too heavy either that I’d embarrass myself with my incompetent authentic chopstick skills.